Updates: news releases and updates

Richest Country in the World Won't Help Its Neighbors

Posted Dec. 11, 2007 / Posted by: RConnors

The Bush administration is once again holding things up in the international climate negotiations. In fact, the United States won the Fossil of the Day award today - a daily award given by the NGO community for doing really stupid things during the UN negotiations. Today's award went to the United States for:

Trying to remove the call for "sufficient, predictable, additional and sustainable financial resources for" adaptation in future discussions under the UN convention

Flatly declaring that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is "not a sustainable development convention"

Trying, in a press conference yesterday, to raise doubts about the Nobel-winning IPCC's science by claiming "many uncertainties surrounded" the IPCC's analysis due to its examination of only "a small subset" of possible climate change scenarios

Falsely claiming that to include an ambitious goal for industrialized country emission reductions in the next round of discussions would be to "start out with a predetermined answer" to the outcome of the negotiations

And, most of all, for saying that the 25-40% cuts by 2020 are "totally unrealistic for many countries."

Also today, Friends of the Earth U.S., along with partner organizations, released our "Climate and Development Principles" that call on the (apparently currently deaf) U.S. government to:

Act now to do its fair share to reduce its contribution to global warming emissions.

Take responsibility to provide assistance to help developing countries adapt to the consequences of global warming.

Work collaboratively with other nations to address climate change and the critical links between global warming and global poverty.

Shift to a more sustainable domestic energy path, as well as support other nations in their shift to a more sustainable energy and climate path.

In other news, a decision on the Adaptation Fund was made last night. Although the Global Environmental Facility prevailed in managing the fund, an independent governance structure was put into place, ensuring representation in decisionmaking from countries that will be hardest hit by climate change. And the decision to house the Adaptation Fund at the Global Environmental Facility will be revisited in 3 years. Not enough, but at the very least, it sounds like the Fund will move forward.